campfireSmoresEaten
No bio...
User ID: 2560
campfireSmoresEaten
1mo ago
You live in Japan? Are you Japanese? What's your story?
The thing that makes the path forward plausible is people acknowledging the problem and contributing to the solution, just like any other problem that requires group action.
I don't think you actually live your life this way. You're just choosing to do so in this case because it's more convenient / for the vibes.
Think of every disaster in history that was predicted. "We could prevent this disaster with group action, but I'm only an individual and not a group so I'm just going to relax." Is that really your outlook?
If there was an invading army coming in 5 years that could be beaten with group action or else we would all die, with nowhere to flee to, would you just relax for 5 years and then die? Even while watching others working on a defense? Are the sacrifices involved in you contributing to help with the problem in some small way really so extraordinary that you don't feel like making a token effort? Is the word 'altruism' such a turn-off to you? How about "honor" or "pride" or "loyalty to one's people"? How about "cowardice" or "weakling"? Do these words shift anything for you, regarding the vibes?
Edit: I'm not trying to be insulting, just trying to call attention to the nature of how vibes work.
People do pro-social things not just because of the fear of punishment for not doing them, but because they understand that they are contributing to a commons that benefits everyone, including themselves.
For the record, it wouldn't be that hard to solve this problem, if people wanted to. Alignment is pretty hard, but just delaying the day we all die indefinitely with a monitoring regime wouldn't be that hard, and it would have other benefits, chiefly extending the period where you get to kick back and enjoy your life.
Question: Are there any problems in history that were solved by the actions of a group of people instead of one person acting unilaterally that you think were worth solving? What would you say to someone who took the same perspective that you are taking now regarding that problem?
And the "Are the sacrifices involved in you contributing to help with the problem in some small way really so extraordinary that you don't feel like making a token effort?" question is worth an answer to, I feel.
campfireSmoresEaten
3mo ago
Why is that stupid?
campfireSmoresEaten
10mo ago
I'm back with a new account! Glad to see this place is still active.
campfireSmoresEaten
29d ago
The human brain is a "chinese room". Also AI has done many agentic things. Any definition of agentic that would exclude everything an AI has done would be so strict as to be obviously fragile and not that meaningful.
campfireSmoresEaten
1mo ago
Quick list of bullet points. You don't have to read them. I realize you didn't ask me to give you a summary. I understand this is perhaps a strange or unpleasant subject, but silence has historically been how a variety of horrible things have gone on for as long as they did.
- Sensitivity and sexual function:
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The foreskin has densely packed nerve endings.
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The foreskin prevents the penis from being desensitized (keratinized) by continuous contact with fabric.
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The foreskin's gliding motion functions as a physical lubricant which is beneficial to both partners.
In most circumcised men, the most sensitive part of the penis is the circumcision scar. Most circumcised men do not realize they have a circumcision scar or what it is.
I could go on about sensitivity but you get the idea.
- Anesthetic:
A lot of doctors and religious functionaries don't use adequate anesthetic, or any anesthetic at all. In my case, no anesthetic was used. If Wikipedia is to be believed on this subject, "It is now accepted that the neonate responds more extensively to pain than the adult does, and that exposure to severe pain, without adequate treatment, can have long-term consequences."
- Risk of a botched circumcision: (somewhat speculative compared to the other two)
Here's a man talking about his botched circumcision: https://youtube.com/watch?v=n-N5XlH3DyU
(He is on the autism spectrum.)
Although circumcision proponents claim the odds of a botched circumcision are very low, there is some evidence to suggest that the risks may not be as low as suggested. A United States anti-AIDs program in Africa called PEPFAR ceased circumcising children below the age of 15 because the rate of botched circumcisions was higher than they could tolerate, and higher the younger the child was.
In the documentary American Circumcision, the suggestion is made that an infant's penis which the doctors claim was always malformed was actually disfigured by circumcision. It's been a while since I've seen it and I forget the evidence presented, but it's conceivable to me that lies of that nature exist and contribute to the supposed rate of botched circumcisions being less than actuality.
A lot of doctors in the US are sort of clueless about intact penises and give erroneous suggestions. Please be skeptical about what they tell you, and about what they don't tell you.
campfireSmoresEaten
2mo ago
It is comforting to read your post, I feel similarly.
Well I don't know if you know this already, but in dath ilan it's implied that "someone wanting to live as if they were a woman and society treats them thusly because that's kinder or more libertarian" and "being a woman" are not the same thing. And it's implied that there are no ftm people (or very few) in that alternate timeline, only mtf. I don't remember where in the dath ilan writings it says those things, and my memory may be unreliable, but there you go. Progressive but subtly Kolmogorov or whatever. But from what I gather subtle things like that are not enough to satisfy you, which I sympathize with. In this week's roundup in response to another comment @Goodguy says that infant circumcision is probably a worse problem in our society than any concerns on this issue, but that people can care about both. And that's how I feel as well.
campfireSmoresEaten
3mo ago
Your argument is premised on the assumption that continued AI development only holds a partial risk of human extinction. You're not disagreeing with the airstrike plan, you're disagreeing with the premise that it follows from.
You're also assuming that airstrikes would escalate to nuclear war, but that's a less glaring error.
The choices are: airstrikes -> you might die in nuclear war, no airstrikes -> you definitely die from ai, along with all humanity, but you say that you don't care about that so I don't know why I'm bringing it up
campfireSmoresEaten
4mo ago
Are Cuban-Americans really great or do people who complain about immigrants not complain about them because they're more sympathetic?
Kind of a stupid question, I know.
campfireSmoresEaten
13d ago
I guess if I was a Tory I would create some sort of "political moonshot plan" designed around trying to make people understand why housing is stupidly expensive (scarcity caused by laws) and how to fix it (make it legal to build stuff where it is illegal because people voted for scarcity, and easier to build stuff where the laws make it artificially difficult as a more subtle way to create scarcity). Worth a try, right?
campfireSmoresEaten
13d ago
The real question (one of them, anyway) is how differently things will play out at UToronto and other universities in the UK and Canada. If Pro-Palestine protestors can make/hold some gains there, that would be geopolitically meaningful if it serves to provide a contrast to the US.
campfireSmoresEaten
14d ago
I would like for criminal acts not to be rewarded, but what are the odds that the USG (or whoever) actually escalates? What are they more afraid of, escalating or Ukraine losing?
campfireSmoresEaten
14d ago
I would at least consider staying and fighting. Just because I don't like it when people start wars in order to annex land or entire countries.
campfireSmoresEaten
14d ago
Do you think they'll mellow out as they get older and become libertarians? Or will they just be consumed by nanobots along with the rest of the human race?
campfireSmoresEaten
23d ago
Reminds me of this great Etgar Keret essay:
https://etgarkeret.substack.com/p/boohoo-to-you-too
(Israeli short story author, one of his stories was adapted into an indie movie called Wristcutters: A Love Story which you may or may not have heard of)
If you could wave a magic wand that would make you attracted to your wife regardless of her weight, would you? You could still be concerned about the health side of things, just the attractiveness wouldn't be an issue.
It's important to the hypothetical to know that the magic wand has a resale value of $3500 and you can sell it whether you use it or not.
Edit: also don't do any hint dropping. Don't be direct either. The most you can do is go on walks with her and organize healthy meals. But there has to be plausible deniability. Not just plausible deniability, probable deniability.
Women don't like to be told! Chapter 87 of HPMOR, Harry and Hermione.
campfireSmoresEaten
24d ago
But that only started once it became clear that Russia was belligerent. The US didn't want to destroy Russia just for the sake of it, they wanted to do that because Russia was a threat to the system of the world.
campfireSmoresEaten
24d ago
Russian aggression has a lot to do with why Ukraine's economy is doing so badly, I should think.
campfireSmoresEaten
24d ago
The difference is that Russia is still doing it. And to a lesser extent so is China.
so what will they do?
How hard do you think it would be to decapitate or disfigure the regime without nukes? Like a heart attack gun, but for a country. Drones, lasers, hacking, etcetera. There are many ways to escalate, NATO only has to convince itself that just one of them doesn't require that much courage to pursue. The plans probably already exist, just as a framework, created as practice in the art of developing tactical plans rather than out of expectation that they would ever be used, but they do exist. I'm not saying this will happen, but if Russia does push NATO too far then these options will be seriously considered.
campfireSmoresEaten
1mo ago
If existing scientific methods aren't enough to analyze this issue, imagine how awesome it would be if the transgender community and their vanguard managed to push for prediction markets to study this subject.
(I like prediction markets)
campfireSmoresEaten
1mo ago
Well if it's a question worth asking then it might be worth the weirdness.
campfireSmoresEaten
1mo ago
I do think that there are perhaps missing outlets for anger in our society. But I don't really know.
Fat women can be charming, within a certain threshhold. They have a certain gravitas about them (pun not intended, believe it or not).
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